


Spaces Between

by orphan_account



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe, Everyone Is Gay, Everyone is early 20s, Explicit Sexual Content, Extra Super Spicy Pining, F/F, F/M, Fluff and Humor, Friends to Lovers, Long-Distance Relationship, M/M, Masturbation, Mutual Pining, Or at least kinda gay, Snape is comic relief, Video & Computer Games, World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King, circa 2010
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-25
Updated: 2019-08-25
Packaged: 2020-01-31 19:50:56
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 9,836
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18598243
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Remus Lupin has played World of Warcraft since the day it released. He's made friends for life in this vast world - and even found someone to love.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Remus (Moonmoon) - Holy Paladin  
> Sirius (Siriuslydark) - Rogue  
> James (Cervum) - Prot Paladin  
> Peter (Mercurio) - Disc Priest  
> Lily (Cerva) - Mage  
> Dorcas (Bamfxo) - Blood DK  
> Marlene (Insanity) - Shadow Priest  
> Tonks (Hippichic) - Resto Druid  
> Snape (Bowjob) - Hunter  
> Regulus (Heartsaflame) - Warlock

“More DPS!” James yelled, fingers clacking away on his keyboard. Strangely enough, he was the tank. A Protection Paladin with sword and board, and in no universe was he providing enough DPS to whittle away at the boss's health in any capacity to avoid the enrage timer. 

Which, Remus noticed, was dwindling down to under a minute. His eyes swept over his raid frames, noticing that Severus was dead, Marlene was nearly dead, Peter was out of Mana, and Dorcas had popped all of her cooldowns and was currently living with a sliver of health.

Remus glanced over at Recount, and  _ fuck _ , Regulus was topping the DPS meters and Tonks was easily topping the healing one. Remus was struggling, but he was also trying to DPS while keeping  _ both _ of the tanks alive. He figured he should probably stop trying to cast his measly Exorcism and focus more on keeping the tanks alive, but that was nothing more than using Beacon of Light on James and spamming a single spell on Dorcas for the entirety of the encounter.

There was nothing difficult about playing a healer outside of making sure that idiot DPS stayed alive as they stood in shit and complained about not getting any heals. Half the time, Remus would let said DPS die and then type something along the lines of  _ I can't heal stupid. _

Severus was always dead. It was amazing that he was even still on the raid team. If he wasn't friends with the raid leader and the raid leader's girlfriend it was almost certain that he wouldn't be. He did nothing but whine about wanting to play his Warlock ( _ fuck no _ , was the resounding answer because Regulus was much better at it and there was no reason for two Warlocks. Severus had been downgraded to a Hunter because they had less buttons to press.)

Remus, rather annoyed as always, muttered back. “If I smash my keyboard any harder it's going to break.”

It was a surprise that James even heard him over the people with their mics constantly open, button mashing and breathing heavily as always.

“Better fucking save up for a new keyboard then because we have less than a minute until we hit enrage.”

Remus gritted his teeth but  _ definitely _ didn't smash his keyboard any harder. He'd paid nearly $100 for the damn thing, and he was not prepared to have to purchase another. Not that he was really providing a whole lot of DPS considering he was, you know, a healer. Judgment and Exorcism were about all he had to offer, but he stared at the waning health bars of his raid, spamming his Flash of Light to keep everyone alive.

**_THE END HAS COME_ ** _. _

“Nevermind. Wipe,” James sounded exasperated, and Remus overhead him slamming his fist on his desk. How the poor thing was still standing after years of abuse, Remus had no idea. Vaguely he wondered if the wood had magical properties to have made it so long.

“I'm just saying,” Severus started, in his low and monotonous drawl, “that you guys need to pick up your DPS because I'm carrying all of you.”

The collective groan echoed through Vent, and Remus could make out Peter's snickering.

“You're literally below Remus on Recount. He's. A. Healer,” Lily chimed in, sounding utterly annoyed. It was particularly funny because the two of them were good friends outside of the game, but you couldn't tell the minute they logged in to World of Warcraft. She played an Arcane Mage, so she always topped the meters when Regulus wasn’t around. Regulus was just really good at what he did.

No one else really  _ hated _ Severus, but it was a group effort to tolerate him and his habits of being a troll. He liked to let his pet pull things; he liked to leave taunt on to piss of Dorcas; he enjoyed Misdirecting to the healers; and he _ really _ liked AFKing while auto attacking just to shove food into his mouth. The benefit to the last one being that at least he wasn’t shit talking.

“Maybe if you let me play my Warlock like I wanted to-”

“Sev, honestly, Reg is  _ so _ much better at it than you are,” James said. The cackling that ensued over comms was loud and boisterous. “Not to mention that your auto attack would consist of  _ wanding  _ and I don't even want to think about what your DPS would look like then.”

“Why does that mean I can't play it too? I'm good at it.”

Regulus finally chimed in, the laughter still lining his words. “We only need one Warlock. I do the summoning and the healthstones and summon demons or whatever. You- You AFK auto attack and forget to turn your pet's taunt off.”

“That was  _ one time _ .”

“Bullshit,” Dorcas cut in. “You do it every fucking dungeon, dude. I swear if I have to hear you eating crisps while your stupid pet pulls the entirety of The Nexus again I'm going to come to your house and murder you with my bare hands.”

“It wasn't The Nexus,” Severus sounded more offended by her inability to name the correct dungeon than by her threat. “It was Halls of Lightning.”

Remus sputtered and choked on his water, pausing his running back to The Lich King's throne to regain his composure. It wasn't an uncommon occurrence for the group to drag Severus into their dungeon runs. For whatever reason, they all seemed to be a glutton for punishment.

[Raid] Siriuslydark: MATES

[Raid] Siriuslydark: STOP STANDING IN SHADOW TRAP

[Raid] Siriuslydark: and by mates

[Raid] Siriuslydark: I mean u sev

“Why the fuck are you typing, asshole?” Severus asked.

“Honestly, let him type. He never shuts up otherwise.” Marlene, the ever angelic voice of reasoning.

Remus  _ had _ wondered why the usually chatty Sirius was dead silent. Especially when his brother, Regulus, was talking like normal. And they lived together. In the same apartment in California.

[Raid] Siriuslydark: i’m eating

[Raid] Siriuslydark: and unlike u

[Raid] Siriuslydark: i don’t eat with my mic open :)

Severus cued up his mic to say something else, but Tonks interrupted him to ask for buffs. Remus sighed at his pile of reagents and how it was getting dangerously low. How the fuck was he supposed to buff people if he ran out? No way in hell was he going back to Dalaran and the two frames per second he received there.

“Sev, you owe me reagents,” Remus jested, adjusting himself in his chair. He grabbed for more of his animal crackers, shoveling them in his mouth before right clicking on the feast and watching his character eat.

“I don’t owe you shit, asshole.”

[Raid Warning] Bowjob: Severus will provide reagents when he gets to play his lock.

[Raid] Siriuslydark: honestly james

[Raid] Siriuslydark: why the fuck is he an officer

[Raid] Siriuslydark: when do i get to be an officer???

[Raid] Siriuslydark: james

[Raid] Siriuslydark: james

_ Bamfxo blows Hippichic a kiss. _

[Raid] Siriuslydark: disgusting

_ Siriuslydark blows Moonmoon a kiss. _

Remus nearly hacked up an animal cracker, heat creeping over his face. It hadn’t been long since Sirius had begun to flirt with him, but he still wasn’t sure if he was joking or not. They’d raided together since Vanilla, and that was nearly four years prior.

It was a running gag that the two of them would end up married with three kids and two dogs. Remus wasn’t turned off by that idea in the least.

_ Moonmoon makes a rude gesture at Siriuslydark. _

“Can we stop flirting and pull? I’m hungry.” 

“Shut up, Sev,” came the resounding chorus of the rest of the raid. Always at the same time and never offbeat.

“If you stand in a Shadow Trap  _ one more time  _ I am going to kick you,” James growled into his mic.

[Raid] Siriuslydark: LIAR 

Remus snorted and shook his head.

The DBM timer popped up on his screen and the voice counting down put him in the zone. No Shadow Traps to the face. No defile dropped in the group. Hopefully do the frostmourne phase correctly. Don’t fall off the edge. 

“FUCK.”

Bowjob has been removed from the group.

“Aw, come on. It was an accident.”

“ _ I told you I was going to kick you if you stood in Shadow Trap. _ ”

“Battle rez me, what the fuck!”

[General] Bowjob: LF new raid group. Greatest Hunter on the server. 6300 gearscore. 400 in fists proficiency. [Did Somebody Order a Knuckle Sandwich?]

[General] Siriuslydark: don’t do it lads. DON’T DO IT.

[General] Shammiches: I’ll take you. You good at suckin dick?

[General] Cervum: He is. I’ll pay you to take him.

“Why are we typing in the middle of raid?” Lily was sassy when she needed to be. She never spoke when it was unnecessary, but honestly, Remus was wondering the same thing. 

“You know it’s bad when your raid leader is typing in general chat.” Remus said through a mouthful of crackers. 

They wiped again, for likely the 20th time that evening. Their raid nights generally ended up this way, which was funny in a sort of not-funny kind of way. They easily sliced through the rest of the raid, finishing off everything up to Sindragosa and her booming voice lines consisting of things such as  _ suffer, mortals, as your pathetic magic betrays you! _

They made it through that fight even with Severus half AFK as ice blocks came out. Lich King was standing between them and realm second, being one of three guilds that had made it this far. It seemed like a far off dream to finally down the Lich King - to finally see the cutscene at the end that they had all avoided spoilers for because they wanted to experience it first hand.

They all stayed silent as they trudged back to the boss. Back to standing in front of Tirion to start the encounter. Back to the Shadow Traps that would launch you over the edge and the Defile that would spread if you stood in it. Shit, Remus was tired of this fight.

Bowjob has joined the group.

“Eat up,” James began. “Also refresh your flasks. Quit being penny pinchers. You guys need the help.”

Remus rolled his eyes, but did as he was told. He right clicked the feast after downing a flask, watching his character bring food to his mouth.

“Alright bitches,” spoke up Dorcas. “If we don’t kill this I’m going to gquit.”

“You say that,” replied Marlene. “And Sev is going to make sure we continue to wipe up until the last minute.”

Remus glanced down at his chat box, expecting Sirius to type up some sort of a reply. Some snarky response to Severus being a royal pain in the dick. He didn’t type a word in raid chat, but he did send a single whisper.

[Whisper] Siriuslydark: ;)

_ Siriuslydark whistles at Moonmoon. _

“When are you two going to fuck? You’re blue balling  _ me _ ,” Tonks said, only her second line of the evening, sounding rather amused with herself. She always referenced the running joke since Vanilla about Remus and Sirius getting together.

“Honestly, though,” Peter sounded as if he had a handful of food in his mouth. “If only Sirius had come to our guild meet-up last year.”

The entirety of their raid team had met up in Florida the year prior. They’d gone to Disney World together, the beach, a few bars. Remus had an absolute blast, but he had also been crestfallen when Sirius and Regulus couldn’t make it. Mostly Sirius, because,  _ well _ .. His one-sided pining was a constant in his life. One thing that was stable when other things weren’t.

“Ugh, no,” Marlene sounded disgusted. Remus could picture her lip curling. “I had the room next to Remus’, and that’s one thing I never want to hear in my life.”

Finally, after an entire two hours of not speaking, Sirius pitched in his two cents. “Listen, Marlene. Just because you’re too afraid to shove your tongue in Dorcas’s mouth doesn’t mean you can take your anger out on those of us who aren’t afraid of what they want.”

Vent was quiet for a moment. Remus could practically hear Marlene’s fuming anger just before a roar of laughter picked up. Of course that would be the very first thing he spoke up with - an insult against Marlene and her obvious pining. The two girls had done everything  _ except _ kiss over that week together, and even Remus felt awful for Marlene.

“Did you just _ admit _ to wanting to shove your tongue in Remus’s mouth?” James asked. “You know what, no, I don’t want to know. Keep your tongues in your own mouths. Stop drooling on your keyboards and get your hands out of your pants. We have a king to kill.”

Remus chuckled and readied himself, clicking on The Lich King. The roleplay droned on for over a minute, until finally combat started. Everything went smoothly for a little while: no one stood in the Shadow Traps, the tanks were healthy, no one was running out of mana, and Severus was even out DPSing Remus, the Holy Paladin. 

Fucking. Finally.

James was barking out commands over the warning pings of DBM, alerting everyone of phase changes and where exactly they needed to go. Shit was not hitting the fan and Remus almost believed that this was going to be their kill. Their shot at realm second, though that wasn’t very spectacular.

“Sev, I swear to fuck,” Dorcas sounded pissed.

Remus was confused for a moment until he noticed Severus’ pet had died. Again. Remus could heal the damn thing, but he found it to be a waste of mana. Hunters could heal their own pets, though there was never really any reason for them to be dying in the first place. Unless..

“Turn your fucking pet’s taunt off, Sev, or I  _ swear _ ," James growled.

“Whatever do you mean?” Severus: bored, tired, probably finding himself hysterical.

Remus stared at the Hunter off to his left as he frantically spammed Flash of Light on Dorcas to keep her alive through a debuff. The stupid Troll Hunter, weaving his hands through the air as he resurrected his pet.

The bear launched itself at the boss, and the red indication of a taunt popped up over The Lich King’s head. Yeah, Severus definitely turned his pet’s taunt on.

Dorcus grumbled into her mic. The pet died. Severus stopped to resurrect it  _ again _ .

This happened a few more times until finally Dorcas got so mad that she walked right off the edge of the platform.

“Dorcas, what the fuck?”

“James, if you don’t kick this shithead I swear to  _ fucking god _ .”

“Guys, I ran out of arrows.”

Remus smacked his forehead with the palm of his hand. He had spent the entire evening crafting arrows for Severus with his second profession: Engineering. Those damn arrows sold for a ton in the auction house, yet he fed them to Severus for free. Somehow he had managed to use all of them, but that might have something to do with the fact that they had wiped a million times in the past two and a half hours.

“Are you shitting me right now?” James asked. Tonks battle resurrected Dorcas. Remus watched the angry Orc charge at the boss.

Then, something that  _ should _ have been comical happened. Severus unequipped his bow. The stupid Troll ran  _ up _ to the boss and began punching it. With his fists.

“If we get realm second with this idiot punching the boss I’m going to delete my account,” Sirius sounded calm given the situation. Amused, even.

As fantastic as it would have been to kill the boss and finally stop slamming their faces against it day in and day out, they wiped.

**_THE END HAS COME_ ** _. _

“I really hate you guys.” Dorcas disconnected from Vent.

Bamfxo has gone offline.

They’d been raiding for hours and it was well past time for them to call it. Remus yawned and stretched, eyes trailing to the clock in the top right corner of his screen. It was already past one in the morning, but luckily he didn’t have work the following day. He knew many of his guildmates did, though, so James called it.

“Tomorrow you idiots better come prepared or I swear.”

“James,” Lily began, “you’re not going to do anything, I’m really not sure why you bother.”

A few snickers rose up in Vent, before the sound of everyone disconnecting filled Remus’s ears. He moved to pull off his headset and stand, stretching his arms above his head. He swiped his hands over his legs, trying to brush off stray crumbs from his snack, eyes flicking back to his screen to see the ever familiar purple in the chat window of someone whispering him.

[Whisper] Siriuslydark: I stg if sev doesn’t stop fucking around

[Whisper] Siriuslydark: I’m going to find a new raid group

Remus laughed, cracking his back before plopping back down into his chair.

[Whisper] Moonmoon: You won’t.

[Whisper] Siriuslydark: that a challenge I hear moony??

[Whisper] Siriuslydark: i’ll do it

[Whisper] Siriuslydark: bet me

[Whisper] Moonmoon: I’d bet you anything. You won’t do it. You’ve been saying this for like three years my guy.

[Whisper] Siriuslydark: i don’t need ur negativity

[Whisper] Siriuslydark: don’t remind me that i’m weak

[Whisper] Siriuslydark: i’m a weak man with a weak soul

[Whisper] Siriuslydark: i have no backbone moons

[Whisper] Siriuslydark: OMG

[Whisper] Moonmoon: I’m aware.

[Whisper] Siriuslydark: wanna skype?

Remus scratched his head, then looked down at his attire. He’d pulled on his murloc onesie, the most comfortable article of clothing he owned. Not that he was into weird roleplaying or anything, but he hadn’t done laundry yet, so..

[Whisper] Moonmoon: Can’t. I’m naked.

Sirius didn’t even answer, but the pop up of him calling on Skype cut across the screen. Remus groaned and scooted down his chair. Maybe he could hide the onesie. Maybe Sirius wouldn’t even notice it.

He pulled his headset back on over his curls and answered the call. A few moments later, a grainy video of Sirius appeared on his screen.

“Yo.”

Remus smiled. “Yo.”

Sirius leaned towards his monitor and squinted, head tilting to the side. “What the fuck are you wearing? I thought you said you were naked. I’m disappointed.”

Remus rolled his eyes and moved his character, pulling it out of away mode. He had things he needed to do before heading to bed since it was Tuesday, which meant everything had reset. Fucking dailies.

“It’s nothing.”

“You’re going to have to get up eventually.”

“Fine, it’s a murloc onesie. Fuck off.”

Sirius laughed. Remus wouldn’t openly admit to it, but the sound of it rang like bells in his ears.  _ Fuck _ .

“Yeah, fuck you.”

“I think it’s endearing, honestly,” Sirius replied.

Their conversation ended there for a while, the two of them sitting in silence as Remus completed his Jewelcrafting daily and headed off towards Northrend to do the Argent Tournament ones. He heard a slam and a shout, eyes darting towards his other monitor, where he had Sirius's camera set to full screen. In a totally not creepy kind of way.

“Reg, mate, has anyone ever told you that it’s impolite to barge into people’s rooms? What if I was in here beating my meat? The nerve.”

Remus watched Sirius intently, the way his brows furrowed and his hair spilled over his shoulders; the way his eyes crinkled at the corners when he grinned; the way his hands flailed about as he talked to his brother after muting his microphone. 

Then Regulus’s face appeared, and it always struck Remus as  _ bewildering _ how much he and Sirius looked alike. He didn’t have any siblings of his own, but he knew from experience that it wasn’t normal to look that much alike. It was uncanny.

Regulus’s mouth was moving, but the microphone was still muted. Remus just shrugged and tapped the cup of his headphones, signaling that there was no sound.

Sirius unmuted.

“Hey Moonmoon.” Regulus was always formal with him, which was a stark contrast to the way Sirius spoke. He hadn’t known Regulus as long, to be fair, but it was still strange considering he was only a bit older and relatively good friends with his brother. He never dropped the in-game name, refusing to ever refer to Remus as  _ Remus _ and not  _ Moonmoon the Holy Paladin _ .

“Hey Reg.”

“When are you coming to visit so Sirius can shut the fuck up?”

Remus blushed again, but he tried to hide it by clearing his throat. Because honestly, what hid scarlet red cheeks better than a loud, manly sound?

“I didn’t know I was visiting at any point.”

Sirius shoved Regulus away, pulling his microphone back towards him. He had one of those  _ fancy _ desktop microphones, studio quality, that he likely paid a large sum of money for. He streamed from time to time, and Remus always admired that about him - his ability to be talkative and show himself to people he had never met and likely never would.

Remus would never have the guts to do that.

Then again, Sirius was inhumanely attractive, from the sharp lines of his jaw and down to the waves of black hair that fell past his shoulders.

“Wanna do some PVP?” Sirius asked, completely diverting the conversation away from what Regulus had said. Remus wanted to press it, but he chose not to, eyeing the way Sirius was no longer looking at his camera. He seemed to be finding WoW a lot more interesting at the moment.

“Okay.”

They spent the rest of their time together doing arena. Remus tried not to think about what Regulus had said, and Sirius was  _ definitely  _ not thinking about it as he shouted commands and cried for dispels. It was always fun to play with him, even if Remus wished they could spend more time talking rather than whatever  _ this  _ was.

“I should sleep,” Sirius admitted. A few hours had passed, and it was after three in the morning for Remus. That meant it was just after midnight for Sirius, and Remus knew that was late. He worked in the mornings, which often threw a wrench in their time together.

Remus still wasn’t positive if they were flirting or just really good friends. His mind wandered towards the former, but it was also possible that Sirius thought of him as nothing more than a friend that he could jokingly hit on. It was impossible to tell. Being gay was  _ rough _ .

“All right,” Remus replied reluctantly. He knew he should sleep as well.

“Pull your hood up.” 

“What? No.”

“Please?” Sirius pouted, face close to the camera. His eyes sparkled, silver with flecks of color in them. God, he was gorgeous.

Remus gave an exaggerated sigh and rolled his eyes, but he pulled the hood up over his head.

“Oh, beautiful.” Sirius grinned at him.

Remus slowly lifted a hand, flipping Sirius off through his camera. “Bite me.”

And that was when things got  _ interesting _ . “I can arrange for that.”

Remus lowered his head when he felt the familiar prickle of heat surge over his skin. Sirius was  _ good _ at flirting, and honestly, he had no idea how to process it.

“Make a murloc sound.” Of course he was back to joking around.

“No.”

“Please?”

Remus growled. He sat back up in his chair, leaning in  _ really _ close to his camera. “ _ Mrgl _ ,” he whispered.

Sirius beamed at him before ending the call. The asshole had the audacity to not even say goodnight. That was relatively normal, though, as it seemed their goodbyes were always awkward and uncomfortable.

Remus knew he should go to sleep. He didn’t work that day, but he did have a class in the afternoon. Messing up his sleep schedule shouldn’t have been anywhere on his agenda, but there he was, tabbing out of World of Warcraft to browse the internet. 

Maybe it was the animal crackers. Maybe it was the onesie. Maybe it was the lingering image of Sirius, but Remus found himself browsing through porn.

Granted, he was one of those people who could skim through nearly 60 pages of it before finding something he actually  _ liked _ , but at the moment, he was absurdly horny and wound up clicking on one of the first videos on the first page under the  _ gay _ category. That was only strange because most gay porn was an overly large, muscled man, and a comically smaller man. Remus never really found it  _ hot _ , but he brushed it off as he unzipped his onesie.

He closed his eyes as he began to slowly stroke himself, half in the damn onesie and half out. He was too lazy to pull it off completely. Either that or it was too cold. Probably a bit of both.

He ignored the video and honed in on the quiet slap of skin and constant stream of moans. He loved the sound of a bed creaking, and he  _ definitely _ let his mind wander towards fantasies of himself-spread out on one with Sirius panting above him; Sirius moaning his name and digging his fingers into his thighs.

It wasn’t long before he was spilling over his fingers and over the plush material of his onesie. He let out a quiet gasp as he milked himself through it, head tilting back against the chair.

It didn’t take long for the shame to wash over him. He stared at the video playing on his screen, suddenly absolutely disgusted by it. He clicked the browser shut and tabbed back into WoW, staring at the chat box in the corner of his screen.

[Whisper] Siriuslydark: goodnight

Siriuslydark has gone offline.

Remus drew in a breath before blowing it out through his nostrils. He pulled off his headset with his clean hand before wiping his other over his onesie. It was already filthy and in need of washing, so he peeled it off before stepping across his room and out into the dark hallway.

He lived alone. It got lonely sometimes, but he wasn’t one to complain about the ability to wander around nude. He had no roommates to complain nor any family members to turn up their nose at him.

All he had was a cat. She didn’t even look up at him as he emerged from his hole, though, staring intently out the balcony door into the night. The lights of the city twinkled, and Remus admired it for a moment before reaching down to scratch Blue's head.

He padded towards the washing machine and lobbed the outfit inside. He hadn’t even had any boxers on, so he was left standing there with the wafting chill. 

“I should turn on the heater,” he mumbled, to either himself or his cat. Not that his cat could understand a word he said. He turned the heat on before heading back to his room, leaving the door open just in case Blue wanted to sleep with him.

He basically launched himself onto his mattress after shutting down his computer, drifting off to sleep.

++

Remus awoke to his phone chiming incessantly. He fumbled around on his bedside table for it, cracking open an eyelid. If the sun was shining directly into his window on his day off of work, he was up too early. And there it was, streaking through the gap in his curtains.

He snatched his phone up and stared at the screen. The group chat he was in with his raid members had been going batshit for the past 20 minutes.

Dorcas (9:00): ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME??? SEVERUS FUCKING SNAPE I SWEAR ON EVERYTHING HOLY

Lily (9:03): It’s not that serious calm down, dear.

James (9:03): I am very disappointed in all of you

Sirius (9:05): I’m uninstalling the game atm cya nerds

Severus (9:05): it’s not my fault I ran out of arrows. Moony should have made me more

Sirius (9:05): fuck off mate

Marlene (9:06): you say mate a lot for a native californian

Sirius (9:06): you wanna fuckin go m8?

Remus rubbed his eyes and sat up. He was far too lazy to scroll back up through the ridiculous amount of messages (113) to figure out what the hell they were on about.

Remus (9:07): what happened? It’s too early to be losing your minds

Dorcas (9:07): BLACK LOTUS GOT REALM SECOND. R E A L M  S E C O N D

Remus squinted. Were they really having a panic attack about losing realm second to another guild before the sun was even halfway up the sky? 

Remus (9:08): I fail to see the problem. Shit happens.

Sirius (9:09): :O

James (9:10): wow remus

Regulus (9:10): lmao yikes

Marlene (9:11): sev what the fuck

Peter (9:12): realm. second.

Tonks (9:12): realm second :(

Remus (9:13): nerds

Dorcas (9:14): you guys wanna help me hide a body? (because I’m going to kill sev)

James (9:14): yep

Lily (9:15): oh come on..

Sirius (9:15): yep

Regulus (9:15): sure do

Marlene (9:16): I’m in

Peter (9:16): can I do the honors??

Dorcas (9:16): nope

Tonks (9:17): get em dorcas!!!

Remus (9:17): I’m not prone to violence. I’m a lover, not a fighter.

Severus (9:18): I’ll help hide the body.

Dorcas (9:18): you ARE the body, idiot

Severus (9:18): my offer still stands

Remus turned his phone to silent, ignoring the stream of LOLs that poured in from everyone else. Too early in the morning to deal with everyone ganging up on Severus. Even if it was almost entirely his fault that they had lost realm second to a guild that had started The Lich King long after they had.

He really wanted to go back to sleep, but unfortunately, insomnia was a bitch. Sleep was something that came and went as it pleased. Once Remus was awake, it was nearly impossible to fall back asleep. He rolled around for almost an hour before getting annoyed and giving up.

The group chat died down, everyone dispersing to work or school or back to sleep after reaming Severus for being an idiot. Remus had a single text from Sirius though, outside of the group chat:

Sirius (9:31): wanna level with me later? I’ve been meaning to play a warrior or something.

Remus smiled, just a tiny little lopsided thing. His heart soared at the message and how simple it was. There was probably no hidden meaning behind it, but something about it made his heart leap in his chest.

Remus (10:04): yeah that sounds nice

He received a response immediately.

Sirius (10:05): :)

He pictured Sirius smiling. The curve of his lips and the wrinkles at the corners of his eyes. There was no blowing off his Massive Crush. He'd come to terms with it a long time ago. That didn't make it an easier pill to swallow, though. Especially when Sirius egged it on with his flirtatious demeanor and his stupidly attractive face. Why was he so goddamned attractive?

He spent the rest of his morning finishing his homework and then his afternoon sitting in class. Where he definitely didn't think about Sirius and he  _ especially _ wasn't overly excited to spend time with him in a video game because that would be silly.


	2. Chapter 2

Sirius stared at the clock in the bottom right corner of his screen, counting down the seconds until 4:30, when he would be able to leave work and head home for the weekend. His thoughts drifted toward Remus and all the time they would spend together for the next couple days. He smiled to himself and tapped his fingers on his lips, nearly sending his chair flying into the wall when he stood up.

He shut down his computer and gathered his things, sending his office one last glance as he shut off the light and closed the door.

These were the days when he thought seriously about streaming full time. About quitting his boring office job and sitting at home in front of a webcam for eight hours a day, in front of a few hundred people, playing video games. He had a decent amount of subscribers, and it was almost tempting to try it out just to see what would happen. But unfortunately, Sirius liked having a place to live with food to eat, and it was a big risk he wasn't sure he should take.

He drove home in a rush, though he obeyed all the traffic laws, jumping out of his car and slamming open the front door. Regulus was sprawled across the couch, remote in hand as he lazily surfed through the channels. He looked up at Sirius with a bored expression, pausing on a news station.

_ Heavy rains expected throughout the evening, please take extra caution when driving on the roads- _

"What are you in such a hurry for?" Regulus asked, a dark eyebrow raising toward his hairline. Sirius kicked the door shut and locked it, toeing off his shoes before dropping his keys on the end table next to the couch Regulus was currently occupying.

"None of your business."

"Raid isn't for a few hours," Regulus said. Then: "Oh, do you have an e-date with Moonmoon?"

"When will you drop the ridiculous in-game name and call him Remus?"

"When I meet him anywhere outside of World of Warcraft. Also, is it even possible to fall in love with someone you barely even know?"

Sirius glared at him. "I'm not _ in love _ with him, I just find him intriguing. And I know  _ enough _ about him to know that I like him just fine."

"But does he like you?"

"Fuck off." Sirius ignored Regulus' snickering to head toward the kitchen and grab something to eat. It was already past five, and his stomach was growling. He pulled out a frozen pizza and stuck his head out from behind the wall separating the kitchen from the living room. "Have you eaten yet?"

Regulus shook his head but didn't say another word, suddenly heavily engrossed in the news channel he still had turned on. Sirius dipped back into the kitchen and turned on the oven, carefully unboxing and unwrapping the pizza to toss it inside. He was a heathen that didn't bother waiting for the oven to preheat before placing food in it, so he shut the door after sticking the pizza inside and headed down the hallway.

He flicked on his light and immediately tore his jeans off, kicking them in the direction of his dirty clothes basket before turning on his computer. He was going to stream their raid progression later, but until then, pantsless was the only way to be.

Everything started up quickly, and he signed into Skype, breath caught in his chest. He was excited to see Remus before raid, to start leveling in the few hours they had before they needed to go bang their heads against the Lich King again. He saw Remus was online and didn't bother messaging him before starting up a call, slipping his headphones on and turning on his microphone. He slid it across his desk until it was close enough to pick up his voice, and he grinned when Remus popped up on his screen.

He looked exhausted, but damn was he still gorgeous. The freckles splashed across his face were most prominent in the summer from time spent in the sun, and his skin had a nice sunkissed glow to it. His tawny hair was tousled and Sirius desperately wanted to run his fingers through it. Sirius noticed Remus had been talking to him, blinking himself out of his daze to reply. "What?"

"I said I already created my character."

"Right, yeah." Sirius opened World of Warcraft, tucking his right leg beneath his left. "What race are we going?"

Remus was leaning forward in his chair, his chin rested on his hand. He was closer to his camera than usual, and Sirius caught himself staring again. God, it was hard trying to repress his feelings in the face of Remus' blatant obliviousness. "I made an Orc."

"Not a Blood Elf, Elf-boy?"

Remus looked directly into his camera, and Sirius felt his heart stutter in his chest. "No, an Orc."

"Alright, alright, I was only teasing." Sirius looked at his main character for a few moments, decked out in all the best gear he could get his hands on (minus the stupid weapon that dropped from the stupid last boss in the stupid raid they couldn't even full clear.) "What class did you choose?"

"A Warlock."

Sirius glanced over at his other monitor, eyeing Remus' face with curiosity. He seemed either tired or annoyed, and he wasn't sure how to approach a conversation on the matter. He looked back at WoW, clicking the button to create a new character. He wasn't entirely sure what to play–maybe a Warrior like he had said earlier when he had texted Remus, since he'd always wanted to try it. An angry Orc smashing things with a sword sounded fun.

He would miss his Stealth, though.

"Are you okay?" Sirius asked while he went through the actions of creating a new character: choosing a face, hair, hair color. Not that WoW was really exciting when it came to character creation. Unlike other games he played where you could even adjust the size of their ass.

Remus hummed and rubbed his hands down his face, stifling a yawn. "Just tired."

"School rough?"

"Biology makes me want to spoon my eyeballs out of their sockets. The only thing I know about science is that the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell."

Sirius laughed as he tried to come up with a name for his character. He literally only had one character and its name was just a pun of his actual name. There was no way in hell he could find the energy to create another. Which was why he ended up clicking through the  _ randomize _ feature until he found one that didn't sound like a fart noise.

"Also I have to work this weekend and I'm not really looking forward to it."

Sirius frowned at that, not even attempting to hide it as it spread across his face. He had been looking forward to a weekend with Remus and only Remus, leveling alts and laughing and maybe drinking a bit to loosen up. "Oh," was all he said, staring at the loading screen until the beginning cinematic popped up and he hit escape to skip it.

"Only in the mornings, a coworker is working half shifts this weekend and they needed someone to fill in for her," Remus added. Well, that wasn't  _ so _ bad, but it  would still probably cut their evenings short. He knew when Remus worked in the mornings it was really early—earlier even than Sirius woke on the weekdays.

Sirius tried to wipe the frown from his face, moving his Orc forward with his mouse. He ran around in circles until he noticed the Orc Warlock just a few yards away, seated with the <AFK> tag next to his name. It was Remus, with the same name as his Paladin, only one of the Os had a line through it. “Ah, yes,” Sirius started, stopping short in front of him. “Very original name.”

Remus snorted and jumped, knocking the <AFK> tag away from over his head. They set off to quest together, Remus’ yawning every so often interrupting the comfortable silence that had settled between them. Sirius wanted to ask him questions about his day, but Remus seemed on edge and he didn’t want to step too far over the line they seemed to have drawn between them. They were friendly,  _ very _ friendly, and Sirius often flirted with Remus without any shame, but he felt like there was a boundary somewhere and he wasn’t entirely sure where it was.

Tiptoeing along it was one of his favorite past times normally. But then on days like today, with Remus’ silence and the faraway look in his eyes, he found that he didn’t really feel like it.

They’d taken the time to whisper James to invite them to the guild, everyone who was online berating Remus for his lack of creativity in naming any of his characters. Remus argued that they’d always know who he was (which was true) and that at least his name wasn’t a pun of his real name  _ like someone else _ .

After only ten minutes of silence, Sirius excused himself to pull the pizza out of the oven, knowing that the apartment would catch fire and burn to ash before Regulus would bother to get up from the sofa to pull it out. He set his headphones down on the desk and stood, suddenly very aware of the fact that he wasn’t wearing any pants. He glanced at the screen with Skype open, catching Remus’ eyes widening before he looked away, face turning a noticeable shade of pink.

Sirius smirked but didn’t say a word, turning to leave his room for the kitchen.

“Yo,” Regulus said from the couch, having maneuvered himself to be half upside down, head hanging over the front of it. He held his phone over his head, not even paying attention to the television playing in the background. “You in there masturbating or something?”

Sirius looked down at his boxers before looking back up at Regulus with a scowl on his face. “No, asshole.” He headed toward the kitchen, pulling out a spatula to be able to slide the pizza onto a plate. He popped open the oven door and pulled the pizza out, setting the plate on the counter before closing the oven and shutting it off. “Dinner is done,” he yelled, startled when he turned and realized Regulus was leaning against the fridge.

“When are you going to tell him?” Regulus asked, watching as Sirius pulled out the pizza cutter, steam rising as he cut it into slices.

“What are you talking about?”

“Oh, I don’t know, the fact that you’re pining for someone who lives on the opposite side of the country.”

Sirius drew in a breath and paused, shrugging before he continued to slice the pizza. He took two of them and dropped them onto a paper plate before slipping past Regulus to head back toward his room. “Not any time soon.”

Regulus just huffed his reply, and Sirius didn’t look back as he stepped down the hallway and back into his bedroom. He sat down in his chair and pulled his headphones back on, pressing spacebar to make his character stand again. Remus smiled when he reappeared, and they set back off on their quests to kill miscellaneous creatures and collect their miscellaneous items. Sirius narrated as they went, as he was wont to do. 

“Why does only one crab out of six have a fucking claw? All of these crabs have TWO claws!”

“We need 6 eyes. I’ve killed 8 spiders and only gotten 2 eyes. How is that possible when they each have MULTIPLE eyes?! Are these blind spiders?”

An hour and a half passed, Remus was mostly silent, and Sirius tried to uphold a one-sided conversation about his streaming and how he’s seriously considering taking it on as a full-time job. Remus just nodded and grunted replies, but Sirius was used to his withdrawn attitude from time to time. It only meant he hadn’t had the best day, or that he was tired, not that Sirius had done anything to upset him. Well, usually.

“James is whispering me, hold on,” Remus said suddenly, stopping in the middle of massacring a load of boars that Sirius had pulled. Sirius hummed in response and continued to kill them, using Victory Rush every time one of them fell over to heal himself back up while Remus stood AFK next to him. Remus’ Imp, Quzmat, continued to lob fireballs to help him out in the meantime. “Oh, fuck, he wants me to help him run a dungeon.”

Sirius rolled his eyes and let out a sigh. Remus never turned down helping anyone, even if it cut into their time together. It was as if he didn’t enjoy it as much as Sirius did, and something about that made his heart clench. “I guess you’ll be off, then.”

Remus was quiet for a second, then he let out another yawn. “I guess so. I’ll see you at raid in a half an hour.”

The sound of Remus closing the call pissed Sirius off more than it should have, but he kept his fingers from typing out a frantically angry message to James for stealing Remus away from him. That would only add fuel to the fire that was  _ Remus and Sirius are in love, let’s make fun of them for the entire raid. _

He finished slaughtering the last of the boars before he too logged off, his character plopping down on the ground for 20 seconds. He turned his main character around on the loading screen with his mouse before clicking the login button, leaning back in his chair a bit to stretch his arms. It was nearly raid time which meant he should probably put on some shorts and grab some water before he started up his stream.

The moment he logged in, he got a message from Remus.

[Whisper] Moonmoon: I’m sorry

[Whisper] Moonmoon: We can hang out more after raid if you want.

[Whisper] Moonmoon: I even have some beer. 

Sirius considered ignoring him out of pure pettiness, but his excitement to spend more time with Remus late into the evening won over.

[Whisper] Siriuslydark: ok but just so u know

[Whisper] Siriuslydark: ur going to have to make it up to me

A few beats of silence followed and Sirius stood from his chair to grab a pair of shorts from his dresser after pulling off his headphones. He forced himself not to check to see if Remus replied before opening his door and stepping out into the hallway. Regulus was turning off the television, and he glanced up at Sirius before setting down the remote. “Are you streaming tonight?”

Sirius shrugged and stepped into the kitchen, pulling open the refrigerator to grab a bottle of water. “I’m thinking about it.”

Regulus didn’t say anything else, and Sirius heard his brother’s bedroom door click shut as he opened his water bottle to take a drink. He kicked the refrigerator shut and turned off the kitchen light, leaving the living room lamp on as he always did. He sat back down at his computer after closing his door to see a whisper from Remus.

[Whisper] Moonmoon: I already told you we can spend more time together.

[Whisper] Moonmoon: Don’t be gross lol.

Sirius laughed and set his water bottle down, pulling his headphones back on over his head after tucking his hair behind his ears. He had about 20 minutes left before raid actually started (though they were all supposed to show up 5-10 minutes early) so he opened up his stream and adjusted his webcam before going online.

He had a steady stream of viewers, he was partnered, had some subscribers, and he had a lot of fun chatting with people about one of his greatest passions —video games. He played more than just World of Warcraft, delving into single player games when he wasn’t raiding or spending time with Remus. The second he was live, his viewer count rose from zero to well over 50, people popping into the chat to say hi and ask him how his raid had gone the night before.

“Honestly,” Sirius said, currently running idle circles in Orgrimmar as he waited for the invite from James to pop up. “We probably would have gotten realm second yesterday if Sev wasn’t such a jackass.”

His chat broke into laughter and agreed—a lot of them watched his stream since he started nearly a year prior, so they knew how awful Severus could be. Which was to say, relatively awful most days.

[Guild] Cervum: Sorry guys, a bit late. Still in this dungeon.

[Guild] Moonmoon: This DPS is so bad.

[Guild] Siriuslydark: maybe u shouldn’t have ditched me

[Guild] Hippichic: awww, sirius, are you jealous??

[Guild] Siriuslydark: >:(

[Guild] Heartsaflame: Of course he is, dude wants to kiss Moonmoon so badly that I’m surprised Moonmoon doesn’t notice

The collective  _ lol _ s and  _ lmao _ s that filled guild chat made Sirius run his hand down his face, thankful that his viewers couldn’t see his in-game chat. He wasn’t really the type to blush either, thankfully, so he just ignored them and opened Vent when James sent him a group invite.

“Alright,” James said, letting out an annoyed breath of air. Then: “Now that I finished that dungeon, we can go stare at The Lich King until Sev decides we can kill him.”

“I have arrows,” Severus offered.

“Is your pet’s taunt off?” Dorcas asked.

“If you ask nicely I can probably turn it off,” Severus said.

Sirius just rolled his eyes and waited for a summon, disenchanting a few green pieces of gear that were sitting in his inventory. His character rolled his shoulders and slouched back over in his idle stance when he was done, then the pop up of a summon appeared and he accepted it.

It was bound to be a long night filled with horrendous pulls of the boss and the eventual disintegration of any sanity any of them had left after the past few weeks of sitting in Ice Crown Citadel. If he had to hear The Lich King’s rant before the boss fight actually started  _ more than once more  _ he was going to rip his eardrums out with his bare hands.

Everyone circled the feast set out on the platform and clicked on it to eat, their characters sitting down in a circle. James was giving his usual pep talk (and the added “Severus, don’t you fucking dare do anything to piss me off tonight or I  _ will _ replace you with a better Hunter.”) They were empty threats, as Sev and Lily were actually quite close outside of the game. He hoped that the guy wasn’t as obnoxious offline as he was on WoW, but he never got the chance to find out since he couldn’t attend their last guild meetup.

“Alright,” James said suddenly, once everyone had hit OK on the ready check. He started up the fight and The Lich King went on with his speech:

_ So, the light's vaunted justice has finally arrived. Shall I lay down Frostmourne and throw myself at your mercy, Fordring? _

Severus opened his mic just to let out a theatrical yawn, of which everyone else said nothing to. They were all tired of this part, where The Lich King took well over a minute to walk down his icy stairs to talk about his stupid ass sword before he threw Tirion into a block of ice that he conveniently didn’t decide to break out of until The Lich King was almost dead. What a fucking worthless NPC.

The fight went smoothly. No one stood in the Shadow Traps and Severus actually did have arrows this time —Remus had made sure to make him enough to last for the entire night. His pet’s taunt was turned off and no one was bickering over Vent. Everyone worked together to get through the harder phases of the fight, past the Valkyrs trying to drop players off the edge, and past the Frostmourne phase where players took ridiculous amounts of damage while inside of it, trying to help King Terenas’ ghost kill a Spirit Warden.

And then, they all died. But the screeches of victory over Vent were deafening. Sirius nearly ripped off his headphones with excitement, and even Severus cheered happily.

Tirion gave his speech. Sirius shook with excitement and glee, his chat moving a mile a minute as he was congratulated for their win over The Lich King. It had taken too long to get to this place, and even though they had only achieved server third, it was still a bigger achievement than the average WoW player would ever obtain.

They finally quieted down to listen to the last of Tirion’s speech, to watch him jump at The Lich King before they beat away at the last free 10% of his health bar. And he died. He fell to the ground in defeat, Frostmourne at his side. The cinematic started up and Sirius watched it all the way through, Vent silent, but he could  _ feel _ the buzz of excitement.

They had done it.

They had finally fucking done it.

Loot was distributed and James congratulated everyone for finally pulling their heads out of their asses long enough to kill The Lich King. Severus started on about how he needed a certain weapon that dropped (because everything was a Hunter weapon, even if it wasn’t his main weapon), but he didn’t win it. He did, at least, get the bow, because that was  _ definitely _ a Hunter weapon.

Sirius didn’t win anything, but he didn’t care. He was excited. He was pleased. He thrummed with it even when they all left Vent and the raid group disbanded. Maybe he felt especially happy when he stood in Orgrimmar and Remus rolled up next to him and pulled out his shiny new weapon, spinning his character around in circles, his long blonde hair whipping around with him.

[Guild] Cervum: Good shit tonight, everyone. See you next week. Try not to get too wasted.

_ Cervum has gone offline. _

[Whisper] Moonmoon: I’m possibly already around 3 beers deep. Want to level?

Sirius grinned and then said his goodbyes to his viewers, promising he would try to stream again sometime over the weekend. Would he, though? He was horribly inconsistent with his schedule, which was something he knew he needed to work on if he actually wanted to quit his desk job to try it.

[Guild] Siriuslydark: yea but give me a sec need a drink

He took his headphones off, got up from his chair, stretched, scratched his stomach, and then immediately dropped his shorts to the ground. Pants were an unnecessary thing when he didn’t have to worry about getting up from his seat in front of a large audience of strangers. He padded off toward the kitchen to grab a glass and bottle of whiskey and returned to his room. He called up Remus on Skype and logged over to his alt, the ridiculously armored Warrior with a strange randomized name. Remus was already waiting for him, and when he picked up the call, he smiled at Sirius.

“I can tell you’ve been drinking, you didn’t even have to warn me,” Sirius said casually, starting off toward their next quest with Remus in tow.

“It’s been a rough day. Drinking makes me feel a bit happier.”

“That’s not really how that works. Doesn’t drinking just amplify how you felt beforehand?”

“Well, I  _ was _ feeling happier beforehand,” Remus shot back.

Sirius glanced at him for a second, seeing the flush of his cheeks and the sparkle in his eyes made his insides light up. It was a bit unfair how attractive Remus was, even lounging around in an old shirt in a dim light playing video games. It made Sirius want to reach through his screen and kiss him.

They continued in a steady pace, picking up quests and completing them, reaching level 20 before Sirius even realized that over two hours had passed and he’d already drank nearly an entire bottle of whiskey. Remus was happy and giggling, face burning red whenever Sirius hit him with an inappropriate joke or flirted with him. He noticed that Remus seemed more into it, but that could also be because of the fact that he was mostly drunk and they were both giddy with excitement that they had finally killed The Lich King.

Remus asked him about his day at work, to which Sirius replied “It was shit. It’s always shit.”

And Sirius asked Remus about  _ his  _ day to which he skirted around and avoided giving any actual reply to. He said he went to school, but he gave no details as to why he seemed to be in a shit mood most of the evening. The beers he had been sipping on while they leveled had seemed to taken the edge off, though, and Sirius was happy to see Remus smiling and laughing when he cracked stupid jokes.

Sirius tipped his head to the side and watched Remus for a few minutes silently, his bottom lip caught between his teeth. Remus was rambling on about school and the fact that biology was literally the worst subject known to man, and it took him a while to realize that Sirius was staring at him.

“Sirius,” he said, words a bit slurred. “Are you even listening to me?”

His lips were pink. Holy shit, they were so pink, and wet with saliva from him running his tongue over them. His nose was perfectly pointed, and his freckles were begging to be traced over with a fingertip. Kissable lips. Pink. Fuck, was Remus talking to him?

“What?”

“You’re not even listening to me.”

“I was just thinking about how badly I really want to kiss you right now,” Sirius said. Well, that wasn’t exactly what he meant to say, but there it was.

“Uh,” Remus said, face dusting with pink. “That's- I- What?”

Sirius shrugged and sank down in his chair a little bit more. His eyes felt heavy, and all he could focus on was Remus. Remus and his blush and his lips and the way he was running his fingers through his hair.

“You have nice lips,” Sirius said. He did, he  _ really  _ did.

“You’re drunk,” Remus replied. “So am I. We shouldn’t be talking about this.”

“When’s a good time to talk about it, then?” He challenged.

Remus looked up then, eyes locking on his webcam. It felt as though he were staring directly at Sirius. Sirius shivered but didn’t look away from Remus’ face and the piercing amber eyes that seemed to be looking right through his webcam and into his goddamn soul. “Not when you’re drunk and can barely form cohesive sentences.”

Sirius pouted, “Any other time I bring it up you think I’m joking and brush me off.”

“You embarrass me.”

“Do I? Because I really just want to fucking kiss you.”

Remus’ blush darkened, and his eyes dropped to his monitor, and Sirius could  _ feel  _ his heavy gaze. “I should get going, I have work in six hours.”

Sirius opened his mouth to say something back, but the call ended and Remus logged off, leaving him sitting there in confusion. 

What the fuck had just happened?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SORRY I TOOK SO LONG, I LOVE ALL OF YOU.


End file.
